Malware declines but #Nigeria remains under threat

Nigeria, the West African technology and economic hub, has recorded a decline in the number of active global malware families over the past year.

This is according to the latest Threat Index for May 2016 published by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, the global firm.

The May Threat Index presents a mixed view of Africa, with several countries making quite strong moves up and down the index - the higher their relative ranking in the index, the greater the threat of cyber-attack.

While Nigeria recorded a decline, the top malware in the country in May was also a financial threat-Gamarue.

It is a modular bot that hides in trusted processes and can be used to harvest financial information.

Banking malware Tinba became the fourth most prevalent form of infection last month in Kenya, and ninth in Nigeria. This Trojan allows hackers to steal victims’ credentials using web-injects, activated as users try to log-in to their banking website. Tinba ranked second in the overall international threat list


Attacks against mobile devices also remained a high priority as Android malware HummingBad persisted in the overall top 10 of malware attacks across all platforms during the period. In both Kenya and Nigeria, Hummingbad ranks as the fifth most common malware form.

In May, Sality1, Virut2 and Conficker3 were the top malware families in Kenya, while Gamarue4, Sality and Dorkbot5 featured in Nigeria’s top three.




- CAJ News